Mechanical Waves

Claimed by Snehil Mathur (Spring 2022)

Mechanical Waves are waves that propagate through a medium, one that is either solid, liquid, or gas. The speed at which a wave travels depends on the mediums' properties, both elastic and inertial.

The Main Idea

Waves can be described as disturbances that travel through space and can transport energy from its source to another location. These are often represented in an oscillating manner.

Mechanical waves are waves that propagate through matter (gas, liquid, or solid) and require a medium in order to transport energy. Inherently, these waves cannot travel through a vacuum.

There are three main types of mechanical waves:

Transverse Waves:

Waves in which the particles oscillate back and forth in the direction perpendicular to the motion of the wave. The particle travels the length of the amplitude of the and completes its oscillation corresponding to when the wave moves over one wavelength. Some examples of transverse waves are ripples in the water and a vibrating string.

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Longitudinal Waves:

Waves in which the particles move in the same direction as the wave motion. While still in an oscillating motion, they move "back-and-forth" with respect to the direction the wave is propagating in. Some examples of longitudinal waves include sound waves and the motion of compressing and stretching a spring.

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Surface Waves:

Waves in which the particles within the medium move both parallel and perpendicular to the propagation direction of the wave. They're called surface waves due to their nature of travelling along the surface of a medium. This gives the particles on the wave a circular-like motion. The surface of a wave in the water is the most direct example of a surface wave; other examples include seismic waves and gravity waves along the surface of liquids.

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A Mathematical Model

Mechanical waves implement a variety of equations that can be used to solve for different characteristics of a wave. The wave equation is used to find the speed of propagation of a transverse wave:

[math]\displaystyle{ v = \lambda f }[/math]

Where [math]\displaystyle{ v }[/math] is the velocity, [math]\displaystyle{ \lambda }[/math] is the wavelength, and [math]\displaystyle{ v }[/math] is the frequency. Another form of this equation specific to mechanical waves is the formula:

[math]\displaystyle{ v = \sqrt{Stiffness/Inertia} }[/math]

Another common form of this equation is the wave speed for a stretched string, [math]\displaystyle{ v = \sqrt{T/\mu} }[/math], where [math]\displaystyle{ T }[/math] is the string tension and [math]\displaystyle{ \mu }[/math] is the mass per unit length of string. This equation allows for the calculation of the speed of a wave in different forms of matter. To find the equation of a wave that falls under two different mediums, we can apply superposition to find the new wave equation by adding the functions the two different functions that describe possible waves in the medium:

[math]\displaystyle{ y(x,t)=y_{1}+y_{2} }[/math]

Where [math]\displaystyle{ y_{1} }[/math] and [math]\displaystyle{ y_{2} }[/math] are the two possible wave functions for different mediums.

A Computational Model

How do we visualize or predict using this topic. Consider embedding some vpython code here Teach hands-on with GlowScript

Examples

Simple

Q1) A wave travels with a period of 5 ns. The wave can be seen in the image below: (The units of both of axis of this graph are in nm)

Find the speed of the wave described above

A1) The wave equation to find the speed of this function is: [math]\displaystyle{ v = \lambda f }[/math]. To find the frequency, we apply the conversion from period to frequency: [math]\displaystyle{ f=1/T }[/math] [math]\displaystyle{ f=\frac{1}{5*10^{-9}} = \boldmath$2*10^8$ }[/math]

Connectedness

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See also

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Further reading

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External links

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References

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